The delivery of healthcare to the indigent, minority, and disadvantaged populations represents at once Louisiana's greatest burden and its greatest opportunity. The 70-year-old Charity safety-net system, now administratively run as the LSU Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) Health Care Services Division (HCSD), encompasses an eight-hospital, 360-clinic network that cares for almost 850,000 patients. Despite delivering some of the highest quality care in Louisiana, the only financial option for the HCSD is to improve efficiencies of care. Incorporation of health information technology (HIT) to address errors, quality, and value is critical; importantly, system-wide administrative, financial, laboratory, and telemedicine HIT infrastructure already exists on which to build a clinical data system. We are focusing on cardiovascular disease (CVD) care in this THQIT application. Using the existing clinical partnership between LSUHSC, the HCSD, and the Tulane School of Medicine embodied in the Charity system, we are bringing together the Tulane Department of Health Systems Management (financial outcomes and effectiveness of care), a leading CVD software company (system architecture; clinical and financial data concatenation; ARMUS Corporation), the Louisiana Office of Public Health (LA Healthy People 2010 initiative), and outside expert CVD consultants (longitudinal CVD database design;) for this THQIT Partnership. We will plan the design and implementation of a longitudinal CVD information system (LCIS) platform to address disparities in CVD viewed as a lifelong disease process. We will be able to scientifically validate the impact of this HIT effort on quality improvement, medical and financial effectiveness, and increased value. We can create this LCIS in a setting where all the stakeholders have aligned financial incentives. Moreover, the population's extent of disease will magnify the program's impact on health services and clinical research. Finally, endorsement of this HIT effort by this planning grant will leverage LCIS implementation funding, a step that is critical for the HCSD's survival.